1988 Ford Mustang GT Project Hypersilver - Donations Accepted

MPS Auto Salvage hooks us up with a donor car, and we make good use of it for Hypersilver.

Marc ChristBrand Manager, Modified Mustangs & Fords

August 14, 2013

Ground-up project cars can be time-consuming and expensive, and if you’re on a deadline like we are, very stressful. But even if money and time are not taken into consideration, piecing together a 1,000-plus-piece 3D puzzle is still a task of its own—especially when different companies manufacture all of the puzzle pieces independently.

We’re not quite ready to begin assembly of Hypersilver, our latest project car, but it’s definitely heavy on our minds. Most of the parts that will be used for assembly will be new aftermarket pieces. However, there are a bunch of parts that needed for reassembly that aren’t available in the aftermarket yet.

Fox-bodies aren’t in the same category as ’65-’66 Mustangs, which can be built entirely of aftermarket parts—including the body. Instead, many things must be retained from the car or harvested from a donor.

In the case of Hypersilver, all of the nuts, bolts, screws, clips, retainers, wiring, and trim were ditched long before we purchased it as a bare shell on a rotisserie. It was destined to be a drag car, and the owner just tossed all of that “extra weight.” So with the help of MPS Auto Salvage, we got our hands on a donor car.

This Calypso Green ’93 LX hatchback featured a ground-pounding, naturally aspirated, 2.3L, four-cylinder mill and an automatic transmission. After spending almost two decades tearing up the streets and clay roads of middle Georgia, the old Pony took a hard hit in the rear, damaging the left quarter-panel and wrinkling the floor in the process. She found her way to a salvage auction, and ultimately into MPS Auto Salvage’s yard.

Typically if you need salvage parts for your project, you can find what you need on the MPS website. If you don’t see what you need on the website, just call the guys there—chances are, they have what you need for your Fox, SN-95, New Edge, or S197. For our project, it was easier for us to pick up the whole car.

Some of the things we needed to snag from the donor include all of the interior trim, dash, body mouldings, door hardware, lower radiator support, and the roof skin. We hadn’t planned on replacing the roof skin until what we thought was just a little bit of rust turned into pinholes popping up all over the place. Besides, we didn’t mind ditching the sunroof anyway—it was the one thing that we didn’t like about the project.

So other than picking up and stripping the donor, and installing the roof skin and lower radiator support, we also made some headway on the fuel cell by cutting the hole for the new ATL fuel door. Our rotating assembly wasn’t quite ready for this issue, so we’ll catch up with the engine build in a later issue.

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Stang Parts Galore

Few communities are like the Mustang community, and few companies are like MPS Auto Salvage. Specializing in ’87-up Mustang parts, it offers a full range of used, salvage, and take-off parts for your Mustang. It’s like your local salvage yard, only full of Mustangs, fence to fence. It’s the oldest and largest Mustang salvage facility of its kind.

MPS has been in business for over 25 years, and it’s not slowing down. It recently began ramping up its ’05-up inventory, while still specializing in ’87-’04 Stangs. One of its most popular parts is the Terminator drivetrain kit. Normally retailing for $11,499.99, MPS can’t keep these kits on the shelf. It includes everything you need to do a Terminator swap on your Fox or SN-95, like Alan Happel’s.